Testing and Training a Question-Answering System

ABSTRACT

An approach is provided for an information handling system that includes a processor and a memory to improve the quality of question-answer sets used as inputs to a question-answering (QA) system. In the approach, a question-answer pair is analyzed using natural language processing (NLP) components. Some of the NLP components may be taken from the QA system whose input is being analyzed The question-answer pair includes a question and an answer to the question. Based on the analysis, one or more shortcomings of the question-answer pair are identified. The shortcomings relate to an ability of the target QA system to analyze the question. A human-readable feedback is provided to a user. The feedback recommends one or more possible actions to address the identified shortcomings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the increased usage of computing networks, such as the Internet,humans are currently inundated and overwhelmed with the amount ofstructured and unstructured information available to them from varioussources. Information gaps abound as users search for information onvarious subjects and try to piece together what they find and what theybelieve to be relevant. To assist with such searches, recent researchhas been directed to generating knowledge management systems which maytake an input, analyze it, and return results indicative of the mostprobable results to the input. Knowledge management systems provideautomated mechanisms for searching through a knowledge base withnumerous sources of content, e.g., electronic documents, and analyzethem with regard to an input to determine a result and a confidencemeasure as to how accurate the result is in relation to the input.

One such knowledge management system is the IBM Watson™ system availablefrom International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation of Armonk, N.Y.The IBM Watson™ system is an application of advanced natural languageprocessing, information retrieval, knowledge representation andreasoning, and machine learning technologies to the field of open domainquestion answering. The IBM Watson™ system is built on IBM's DeepQAtechnology used for hypothesis generation, massive evidence gathering,analysis, and scoring. DeepQA takes an input question, analyzes it,decomposes the question into constituent parts, generates one or morehypothesis based on both the decomposed question and the results of aprimary search of answer sources, performs hypothesis and evidencescoring based on a retrieval of evidence from evidence sources, performssynthesis of the one or more hypothesis, and based on trained models,performs a final merging and ranking to output an answer to the inputquestion along with a confidence measure.

The testing of question-answering system metrics (e.g., accuracy) uses aset of questions with corresponding correct answers. Question-answeringsystems that make use of supervised machine learning require a similarbut independent set of question-answer pairs to enable the training ofmodels. In most domains, such question-answer sets are not immediatelyavailable and are created by domain experts. This creation process is atime-consuming and error prone task. Errors in the question-answer setslead to inaccuracy in predicting system question-answering performance.Errors also lead to machine learning models trained on incorrectlyclassified instances. These problems are costly when few question-answerpairs are available, when writing new pairs takes significant effort,and when detecting errors requires detailed post hoc analysis.

SUMMARY

An approach is provided for an information handling system that includesa processor and a memory to improve the quality of question-answer setsused as inputs to a question-answering (QA) system. In the approach, aquestion-answer pair is analyzed using natural language processing (NLP)components. Some of the NLP components may be taken from the QA systemwhose input is being analyzed The question-answer pair includes aquestion and an answer to the question. Based on the analysis, one ormore shortcomings of the question-answer pair are identified. Theshortcomings relate to an ability of the target QA system to analyze thequestion. A human-readable feedback is provided to a user. The feedbackrecommends one or more possible actions to address the identifiedshortcomings.

The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity,simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary isillustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Otheraspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, asdefined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limitingdetailed description set forth below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings, wherein:

-   -   FIG. 1 depicts a network environment that includes a knowledge        manager that utilizes a knowledge base;    -   FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a processor and components of an        information handling system such as those shown in FIG. 1;    -   FIG. 3 is a component diagram depicting a recommendation system        processing question-answer pairs and providing feedback to a        domain expert user;    -   FIG. 4 is a depiction of a user interface utilized by the domain        expert to submit question-answer pairs and receive feedback to        improve the quality of the question-answer pairs used as input        by a question-answer (QA) system;    -   FIG. 5 is a depiction of various types of feedback that might be        provided to the domain expert user at the user interface;    -   FIG. 6 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed        by the domain user utilizing the user interface to input        question-answer pairs and receiving feedback from the system;    -   FIG. 7 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed        by the backend process to analyze the question-answer pair; and    -   FIG. 8 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed        by the backend process when performing recommendation        processing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer, server, or cluster ofservers. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected tothe user's computer through any type of network, including a local areanetwork (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may bemade to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using anInternet Service Provider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of one illustrative embodiment of aquestion/answer creation (QA) system 100 in a computer network 102. Oneexample of a question/answer generation which may be used in conjunctionwith the principles described herein is described in U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2011/0125734, which is herein incorporatedby reference in its entirety. Question-answer (QA) system 100 mayinclude a computing device 104 (comprising one or more processors andone or more memories, and potentially any other computing deviceelements generally known in the art including buses, storage devices,communication interfaces, and the like) connected to the computernetwork 102. The network 102 may include multiple computing devices 104in communication with each other and with other devices or componentsvia one or more wired and/or wireless data communication links, whereeach communication link may comprise one or more of wires, routers,switches, transmitters, receivers, or the like. QA system 100 andnetwork 102 may enable question/answer generation functionality for oneor more content users. Other embodiments of QA system 100 may be usedwith components, systems, sub-systems, and/or devices other than thosethat are depicted herein.

QA system 100 may be configured to receive inputs from various sources.For example, QA system 100 may receive input from the network 102, acorpus of electronic documents 106 or other data, a content creator 108,content users, and other possible sources of input. In one embodiment,some or all of the inputs to QA system 100 may be routed through thenetwork 102. The various computing devices 104 on the network 102 mayinclude access points for content creators and content users. Some ofthe computing devices 104 may include devices for a database storing thecorpus of data. The network 102 may include local network connectionsand remote connections in various embodiments, such that QA system 100may operate in environments of any size, including local and global,e.g., the Internet. Additionally, knowledge manager 100 serves as afront-end system that can make available a variety of knowledgeextracted from or represented in documents, network-accessible sourcesand/or structured data sources. In this manner, some processes populatethe knowledge manager with the knowledge manager also including inputinterfaces to receive knowledge requests and respond accordingly.

In one embodiment, the content creator creates content in a document 106for use as part of a corpus of data with QA system 100. The document 106may include any file, text, article, or source of data for use in QAsystem 100. Content users may access QA system 100 via a networkconnection or an Internet connection to the network 102, and may inputquestions to QA system 100 that may be answered by the content in thecorpus of data. In one embodiment, the process sends well-formedquestions (e.g., natural language questions, etc.) to one or morecomponents of the QA system. QA system 100 may interpret the questionand provide a response to the content user containing one or moreanswers to the question. In some embodiments, QA system 100 may providea response to users in a ranked list of answers.

In some illustrative embodiments, QA system 100 may be the IBM Watson™QA system available from International Business Machines Corporation ofArmonk, N.Y., which is augmented with the mechanisms of the illustrativeembodiments described hereafter. The IBM Watson™ knowledge managersystem may receive an input question which it then parses to extract themajor features of the question, that in turn are then used to formulatequeries that are applied to the corpus of data. Based on the applicationof the queries to the corpus of data, a set of hypotheses, or candidateanswers to the input question, are generated by looking across thecorpus of data for portions of the corpus of data that have somepotential for containing a valuable response to the input question.

The IBM Watson™ QA system then performs deep analysis on the language ofthe input question and the language used in each of the portions of thecorpus of data found during the application of the queries using avariety of reasoning algorithms. There may be hundreds or even thousandsof reasoning algorithms applied, each of which performs differentanalysis, e.g., comparisons, and generates a score. For example, somereasoning algorithms may look at the matching of terms and synonymswithin the language of the input question and the found portions of thecorpus of data. Other reasoning algorithms may look at temporal orspatial features in the language, while others may evaluate the sourceof the portion of the corpus of data and evaluate its veracity.

The scores obtained from the various reasoning algorithms indicate theextent to which the potential response is inferred by the input questionbased on the specific area of focus of that reasoning algorithm. Eachresulting score is then weighted against a statistical model. Thestatistical model captures how well the reasoning algorithm performed atestablishing the inference between two similar passages for a particulardomain during the training period of the IBM Watson™ QA system. Thestatistical model may then be used to summarize a level of confidencethat the IBM Watson™ QA system has regarding the evidence that thepotential response, i.e. candidate answer, is inferred by the question.This process may be repeated for each of the candidate answers until theIBM Watson™ QA system identifies candidate answers that surface as beingsignificantly stronger than others and thus, generates a final answer,or ranked set of answers, for the input question. More information aboutthe IBM Watson™ QA system may be obtained, for example, from the IBMCorporation website, IBM Redbooks, and the like. For example,information about the IBM Watson™ QA system can be found in Yuan et al.,“Watson and Healthcare,” IBM developerWorks, 2011 and “The Era ofCognitive Systems: An Inside Look at IBM Watson and How it Works” by RobHigh, IBM Redbooks, 2012.

Types of information handling systems that can utilize QA system 100range from small handheld devices, such as handheld computer/mobiletelephone 110 to large mainframe systems, such as mainframe computer170. Examples of handheld computer 110 include personal digitalassistants (PDAs), personal entertainment devices, such as MP3 players,portable televisions, and compact disc players. Other examples ofinformation handling systems include pen, or tablet, computer 120,laptop, or notebook, computer 130, personal computer system 150, andserver 160. As shown, the various information handling systems can benetworked together using computer network 100. Types of computer network102 that can be used to interconnect the various information handlingsystems include Local Area Networks (LANs), Wireless Local Area Networks(WLANs), the Internet, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN),other wireless networks, and any other network topology that can be usedto interconnect the information handling systems. Many of theinformation handling systems include nonvolatile data stores, such ashard drives and/or nonvolatile memory. Some of the information handlingsystems shown in FIG. 1 depicts separate nonvolatile data stores (server160 utilizes nonvolatile data store 165, and mainframe computer 170utilizes nonvolatile data store 175. The nonvolatile data store can be acomponent that is external to the various information handling systemsor can be internal to one of the information handling systems. Anillustrative example of an information handling system showing anexemplary processor and various components commonly accessed by theprocessor is shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 illustrates information handling system 200, more particularly, aprocessor and common components, which is a simplified example of acomputer system capable of performing the computing operations describedherein. Information handling system 200 includes one or more processors210 coupled to processor interface bus 212. Processor interface bus 212connects processors 210 to Northbridge 215, which is also known as theMemory Controller Hub (MCH). Northbridge 215 connects to system memory220 and provides a means for processor(s) 210 to access the systemmemory. Graphics controller 225 also connects to Northbridge 215. In oneembodiment, PCI Express bus 218 connects Northbridge 215 to graphicscontroller 225. Graphics controller 225 connects to display device 230,such as a computer monitor.

Northbridge 215 and Southbridge 235 connect to each other using bus 219.In one embodiment, the bus is a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus thattransfers data at high speeds in each direction between Northbridge 215and Southbridge 235. In another embodiment, a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus connects the Northbridge and the Southbridge.Southbridge 235, also known as the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) is a chipthat generally implements capabilities that operate at slower speedsthan the capabilities provided by the Northbridge. Southbridge 235typically provides various busses used to connect various components.These busses include, for example, PCI and PCI Express busses, an ISAbus, a System Management Bus (SMBus or SMB), and/or a Low Pin Count(LPC) bus. The LPC bus often connects low-bandwidth devices, such asboot ROM 296 and “legacy” I/O devices (using a “super I/O” chip). The“legacy” I/O devices (298) can include, for example, serial and parallelports, keyboard, mouse, and/or a floppy disk controller. The LPC busalso connects Southbridge 235 to Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 295.Other components often included in Southbridge 235 include a DirectMemory Access (DMA) controller, a Programmable Interrupt Controller(PIC), and a storage device controller, which connects Southbridge 235to nonvolatile storage device 285, such as a hard disk drive, using bus284.

ExpressCard 255 is a slot that connects hot-pluggable devices to theinformation handling system. ExpressCard 255 supports both PCI Expressand USB connectivity as it connects to Southbridge 235 using both theUniversal Serial Bus (USB) the PCI Express bus. Southbridge 235 includesUSB Controller 240 that provides USB connectivity to devices thatconnect to the USB. These devices include webcam (camera) 250, infrared(IR) receiver 248, keyboard and trackpad 244, and Bluetooth device 246,which provides for wireless personal area networks (PANs). USBController 240 also provides USB connectivity to other miscellaneous USBconnected devices 242, such as a mouse, removable nonvolatile storagedevice 245, modems, network cards, ISDN connectors, fax, printers, USBhubs, and many other types of USB connected devices. While removablenonvolatile storage device 245 is shown as a USB-connected device,removable nonvolatile storage device 245 could be connected using adifferent interface, such as a Firewire interface, etcetera.

Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) device 275 connects to Southbridge 235via the PCI or PCI Express bus 272. LAN device 275 typically implementsone of the IEEE.802.11 standards of over-the-air modulation techniquesthat all use the same protocol to wireless communicate betweeninformation handling system 200 and another computer system or device.Optical storage device 290 connects to Southbridge 235 using Serial ATA(SATA) bus 288. Serial ATA adapters and devices communicate over ahigh-speed serial link. The Serial ATA bus also connects Southbridge 235to other forms of storage devices, such as hard disk drives. Audiocircuitry 260, such as a sound card, connects to Southbridge 235 via bus258. Audio circuitry 260 also provides functionality such as audioline-in and optical digital audio in port 262, optical digital outputand headphone jack 264, internal speakers 266, and internal microphone268. Ethernet controller 270 connects to Southbridge 235 using a bus,such as the PCI or PCI Express bus. Ethernet controller 270 connectsinformation handling system 200 to a computer network, such as a LocalArea Network (LAN), the Internet, and other public and private computernetworks.

While FIG. 2 shows one information handling system, an informationhandling system may take many forms, some of which are shown in FIG. 1.For example, an information handling system may take the form of adesktop, server, portable, laptop, notebook, or other form factorcomputer or data processing system. In addition, an information handlingsystem may take other form factors such as a personal digital assistant(PDA), a gaming device, ATM machine, a portable telephone device, acommunication device or other devices that include a processor andmemory.

FIGS. 3-8 depict an approach that can be executed on an informationhandling system, to improve the quality of question-answer sets used asinputs to a question-answer (QA) system, such as QA system 100 shown inFIG. 1. Because question-answer sets are often a low-availabilityresource and their creation is a high-cost process, it is prudent tominimize the errors they contain and maximize their fitness for trainingand testing the target QA system. The disclosed system helps improve thequality of questions and answers by analyzing question-answer pairsusing natural language processing (NLP) components, both from the targetQA system and from external sources. The system describes problems inthe input text or shortcomings in the ability of the QA system toanalyze it. Further, the system recommends actions a domain expert mighttake to address the identified issues. The system disclosed herein canevaluate question-answer pairs using NLP from the target QA system plusadditional components. This design yields feedback based on the currentcapabilities of the system, even as the system changes, and also allowsthe use of analysis techniques not employed in the system. For example,applying our invention to question-answer sets for IBM Watson™, thesystem might reuse the English Slot Grammar parser on questions andanswers but also include a finite state automaton (FSA) component notpresent in the QA system to evaluate potential matches for an answerregular expression. In addition, the system can use a subset of thetarget QA system to analyze question-answer pairs, resulting in fasterfeedback about problems than running question sets through the entiresystem and analyzing the results against the paired answers afterward.The approach identifies issues (shortcomings) in and givesrecommendations about the question-answer set. In addition, a developercan add or subtract analysis components from the system to performdomain-specific question-answer set analysis and provide recommendationscustomized for the domain expert. The system discussed above is furtherdescribed in FIGS. 3-8 and accompanying detailed descriptions, discussedbelow, which provide further details related to one or more embodimentsthat provide an approach for improving the question/answer pairs used asinput to a QA system.

FIG. 3 is a component diagram depicting a recommendation systemprocessing question-answer pairs and providing feedback to a domainexpert user. Phase 300 depicts steps performed in the development of therecommendation system. These steps configure various aspects of thesystem. At step 310 during of development of the recommendation system,the developers configure with natural language processing (NLP)components that are used in the target question-answer (QA) system. Forexample, the developer might create an Unstructured InformationManagement Architecture (UIMA) aggregate by reusing annotators from thetarget QA system, such as an English Slot Grammar (ESG) annotatorincluded in the QA system. At step 320 during of development of therecommendation system, the developers configure with additional NLPcomponents that are not used in the target QA system. For example, thedeveloper might create a UIMA annotator that uses a finite stateautomaton (FSA) to generate sample answers from a regular expression. Atstep 325, during of development of the recommendation system, thedevelopers configure with recommendation components that analyze andgenerate feedback from the output of the NLP components. For example,the developer might create a UIMA aggregate that contains an annotatorthat warns about unknown question terms based on a particular termproperty and another that warns about a regular expression matching toomany possible answers. The configured recommendation system 190 isdeployed as a web service where it can be utilized by domain expertusers.

Phase 330 depicts usage of recommendation system 190 by one or moredomain expert users that utilize the recommendation system using afront-end user interface (UI), such as a graphical user interface (GUI)accessible over a computer network, such as the Internet. The stepsperformed in phase 330 use the configured recommendation system toassist the domain expert user in creating better question-answer pairsthat are used by question-answering (QA) system 104. At step 340, thedomain expert user utilizes the user interface to provide aquestion-answer pair that the user wishes to have analyzed. Thequestion-answer pair may also include other metadata, such as a regularexpression (regex), and/or a network identifier (e.g., a UniformResource Locator, or URL, etc.) of a web page that contains the correctanswer to the question included in the question-answer pair. Thequestion-answer pair and any provided additional metadata are submittedto recommendation system 190. At step 350, the domain expert userreceives the question analysis back from the recommendation system. Atstep 360, the domain expert user receives the answer analysis back fromthe recommendation system. At step 370, the domain expert user receivesthe question-answer pair feedback and recommendations back from therecommendation system, and, at step 380, the domain expert user receivesand evaluates the various feedback returned by the recommendationsystem. At step 390, based on the domain expert's evaluation of the datareturned by the recommendation system, the domain expert modifies thequestion-answer pair according to the recommendations and analysisperformed by the recommendation system. If modifications are needed, theprocess loops back to step 340 where the domain expert user submits themodified question-answer pair, and any associated metadata, and receivesfurther analysis and recommendation data from the recommendation system.In this manner, the domain expert user can repeatedly refine thequestion-answer pair in order to formulate a better question-answer pairthat can eventually be used to train QA system 104 and provide betterdata in knowledge base 106 utilized by the QA system.

FIG. 4 is a depiction of a user interface utilized by the domain expertto submit question-answer pairs and receive feedback to improve thequality of the question-answer pairs used as input by a question-answer(QA) system. User interface 400, such as a web page, provides variousfields that can be filled in by the domain expert user. Input area 405includes input fields that the domain expert user fills in with thequestion-answer pair and any associated metadata, while summary andrecommendation area 460 is used to display the summary andrecommendations provided by the recommendation system after the domainexpert user submits the question-answer pair.

Input area 405 includes question text box 410 where the user enters thequestion portion of the question-answer pair. Plain answer text box 420is the input field where the domain expert user enters the plain English(or whatever language is being used) answer to the question that wasentered in text box 410. Regular expression (regex) text box 430 iswhere the domain expert user enters a regular expression that matchesother correct answers to the question provided in text box 410. URL textbox 440 is where the domain expert user enters a network identifier,such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), where the correct answer tothe question entered in text box 410. After the user has entered in thevarious question-answer pair data, the user selects Evaluate commandbutton 450 which causes the data entered in the various text boxes to besent to the recommendation system for processing. After therecommendation system has analyzed the question-answer pair data, therecommendation system returns the analysis and recommendation data thatis displayed in area 460. A more detailed view of the summary andrecommendations area is shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 4 provides an overview ofthe types of summary and recommendations provided by the recommendationsystem. Box 470 depicts descriptions of problems that the recommendationsystem detected in the question-answer pair during the recommendationsystem's question/answer analysis. Box 480 depicts recommendationsprovided by the recommendation system to assist the domain expert userin avoiding the problems detected from box 470. Box 490 depictsinformation provided to the domain expert user by the recommendationsystem, namely the question/answer characteristics that were detected bythe recommendation system.

FIG. 5 is a depiction of various types of feedback that might beprovided to the domain expert user at the user interface. Descriptionsof problems detected in the question/answer analysis (500) includesproblems detected in the question provided in the question-answer pair,the answer that was provided in the question-answer pair, or acombination of the question and answer. Types of problems that could bedetected include the question or the answer has misspelled words,question is an incomplete sentence, question is poorly worded question,the question or the answer has terms unknown to the NLP components, thequestion does not suggest a lexical answer type (LAT), the question LATdoes not match the correct answer type, the answer regular expressionhas syntax errors, the answer regular expression does not match any textin a provided source document, the answer regular expression potentiallymatches incorrect answers, the answer regular expression does notconsider alternative forms of correct answers, and the question seeks ananswer the QA system cannot produce based on its data or function (e.g.,predictions of the future).

Recommendations that are provided by the recommendation system to avoidthe detected problems (510) might include spelling corrections, srammarcorrections, rewriting of the question into a proper sentence,replacement of specialized terms with more common terminology, rewordingof the question to suggest LATs when possible, rewording of the questionto match the LAT to the correct answer type, inclusion of alternativeforms of correct answers (e.g., other units, spellings, modifiers,etc.), correction of regular expression to avoid false-positive matches,and correction of regular expression to match a provided human-readableanswer/source document.

Information regarding the question/answer characteristics detected bythe recommendation system that is provided in area 520. This informationcan include information such as a list of detected LATs, and a questionclassification (e.g., a date seeking question, a person seekingquestion, etc.).

FIG. 6 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed by thedomain user utilizing the user interface to input question-answer pairsand receiving feedback from the system. The end user process commencesat 600 whereupon, at step 610, the process receives a question-answerpair and any associated metadata from the domain expert user. Thequestion-answer pair data is input by the domain expert user into frontend user interface (400, see FIG. 4 and corresponding text for detailsof the user interface). The data input by the domain expert user istransmitted from the front end user interface to the backend process ofthe recommendation system (190). The recommendation system analyzes thequestion-answer pair data provided by the domain expert user and returnsvarious data (problems detected, recommendations, information, etc.)resulting from the analysis.

At step 620 of the user process, the user process receives feedback fromthe recommendation system with the feedback including problems detectedin the question-answer pair, recommendations to correct the detectedproblems, and information detected regarding the question-answer pairdata. At step 630, the domain expert user evaluates the feedbackreceived from the recommendation system. Based on the domain expertuser's evaluation of the feedback, the user determines whether to modifythe question-answer pair data (decision 640). If the domain expert userdecides to modify the question-answer pair data, then decision 640branches to the “yes” branch whereupon, at step 650, the process loopsback for the domain expert user to modify the question-answer pair dataand this modified question-answer pair data is processed by therecommendation system and further, refined, feedback data (problemsdetected, recommendations, information, etc.) is once again provided tothe domain expert user as described above. This looping continues untilthe domain expert user no longer wishes to modify the question-answerpair data based on the feedback received from the recommendation system,at which point decision 640 branches to the “no” branch and processingends at 695.

Based on the task being performed by the domain expert user, theresulting question-answer pair data can be used to train the questionanswering (QA) system. In addition, a batch process can be used insteadof the user interface. With a batch process, the domain expert userwould compile a set of many question-answer pair data and submit the setto the recommendation system with the recommendation system providingfeedback (analysis, feedback, etc.) regarding each of thequestion-answer pairs submitted in the batch process.

FIG. 7 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed by thebackend process to analyze the question-answer pair. Backend processingcommences at 700 whereupon, at step 710, the process receives a request,such as from a front end user interface (400) or from a batch process.The process receives the question-answer pair data that includes thequestion and answer as well as any optional metadata provided by thedomain expert user. The question-answer pair data is stored in memoryarea 720 for utilization by the various analysis steps performed by therecommendation system.

At step 725, the backend process of the recommendation system performs aquestion analyzer on the question-answer pair data. The questionanalyzer performs slot grammar parsing on the question text. Thequestion analyzer further detects the type of answer sought by thequestion text. In addition, the question analyzer classifies thequestion. The results from the question analyzer are stored in memoryarea 720.

At step 730, the backend process of the recommendation system performs aregular expression (regex) generator analyzer processes any regex dataincluded in the question-answer pair if such regex data was provided bythe domain expert user. If regex data was provided by the domain expertuser, the regex generator analyzer performs a reverse regular expressioncandidate generation of text that the regex expression will match. Theresulting text that the regular expression will match is stored inmemory area 720.

At step 740, the backend process of the recommendation system performs atype coercion analyzer on the question-answer pair data. The typecoercion analyzer coerces the answer specified by the domain expert userand/or the expression generated by the regex generator to the type ofanswer that the question seeks (the type of answer that the questionseeks being part of the results of step 725). The type coercion analyzergenerates a score that reflects the ease of coercion of the answer tothe type of answer that the question seeks. The coercion analyzer scoreand other type coercion analyzer results are stored in memory area 720.

At step 750, the backend process of the recommendation system performsan answer analyzer on the question-answer pair data. The answer analyzertokenizes the answer text, parses the answer text for grammar, as wellas identifies potential abbreviations and their expansions. The dataresulting from the answer analyzer is stored in memory area 720.

Based on the application or domain of the recommendation system,additional extensions might be employed to provide further analysis forparticular domains. For example, when used in a medical environment,additional analyzers can be used that are tailored to the medicalenvironment. Furthermore, additional general analyzers can be developedand added as extensions. At step 760, if any additional analyzerextensions have been configured, the question-answer pair data as wellas data resulting from other analyzers is processed by the additionalanalyzer extensions. The data resulting from the additional analyzerextensions is stored in memory area 720.

At predefined process 770, the backend process of the recommendationsystem performs recommendation processing using the question-answer pairdata and the data resulting from the various analyzers that is stored inmemory area 720 (see FIG. 8 and corresponding text for processingdetails). Feedback resulting from the recommendation process is storedin memory area 780. At step 790, the feedback generated by therecommendation system is returned to the domain expert user. Thisfeedback is received by the domain expert user and allows the domainexpert user to improve the question-answer pair data that is beingdeveloped for use by the question answering (QA) system.

FIG. 8 is a depiction of a flowchart showing the logic performed by thebackend process when performing recommendation processing.Recommendation processing commences at 800 whereupon, at step 810, thebackend process of the recommendation system performs a parserecommender using data stored in memory area 720 that resulted from theanalysis steps shown in FIG. 7. The parse recommender generatessuggestions to simplify the grammar included in the question-answer pairdata to improve the question answering (QA) system's ability to answerthe question. The recommendations generated by the parse recommender arestored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 820, the process performs a lexical answer type (LAT)recommender routine. The LAT recommender generates suggestions to rewordthe question in order to hint at the type of answer that is beingsought, if possible, to improve the QA system's ability to answer thequestion. The recommendations generated by the LAT recommender arestored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 830, the process performs a focus recommender routine using datastored in analysis memory area 720. The focus recommender generatessuggestions to reword the question so that the question has a more clearfocus. A question with a clearer focus will improve the QA system'sability to answer the question. The recommendations generated by thefocus recommender are stored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 840, the process performs a date/time recommender routine usingdata stored in analysis memory area 720. The date/time recommendergenerates suggestions about whether the QA system is capable of answerthe question included in the question-answer pair data based on thedate/time of the data in the QA system's corpus. These suggestions helpthe domain expert user develop questions that the QA system is capableof answering. The recommendations generated by the date/time recommenderare stored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 850, the process performs a regular expression (regex) syntaxrecommender routine using data stored in analysis memory area 720. Theregex syntax recommender generates suggestions about the syntax of ananswer that is expressed as a regular expression. The recommendationsgenerated by the regex syntax recommender are stored in feedback memoryarea 780.

At step 860, the process performs a regular expression (regex)abbreviation recommender routine using data stored in analysis memoryarea 720. The regex abbreviation recommender generates suggestionsregarding improving a regex answer pattern to match expanded forms ofknown abbreviations. The recommendations generated by the regexabbreviation recommender are stored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 870, the process performs a type coercion recommender routineusing data stored in analysis memory area 720. The type coercionrecommender generates about whether the type of the answer given in thequestion-answer pair data (or generated from the regex generator fromregex data) matches the type of answer that is sought by the question.For example, a question in the question-answer pair may be asking for“how” something is done, but the answers from the question-answer pairmay be answering “why” something is done. The recommendations generatedby the type coercion recommender are stored in feedback memory area 780.

At step 880, the process performs routines for any recommenderextensions using data stored in analysis memory area 720. Therecommender extensions provide recommendations corresponding to anyanalyzer extensions that have been configured for the recommendationsystem (see step 760 in FIG. 7). The recommendations generated by therecommender extensions are stored in feedback memory area 780. After allof the recommender steps have been performed, processing returns to thecalling routine (see FIG. 7) at 895.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that,based upon the teachings herein, that changes and modifications may bemade without departing from this invention and its broader aspects.Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope allsuch changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scopeof this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understood that theinvention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will beunderstood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number ofan introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitlyrecited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no suchlimitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimelements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element,even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more”or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the sameholds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, in an information handling systemcomprising a processor and a memory, of improving a quality ofquestion-answer sets used as inputs to a question-answering (QA) system,the method comprising: analyzing a question-answer pair using naturallanguage processing (NLP) components, wherein the question-answer pairincludes a question and an answer to the question, and wherein at leastone of the NLP components is a configurable analyzer extension;identifying, based on the analysis, one or more shortcomings of thequestion-answer pair, wherein the shortcomings relate to an ability ofthe target QA system to analyze the question; and providing ahuman-readable feedback to a user, wherein the feedback recommends oneor more possible actions to address the identified shortcomings.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the analyzing further comprises: processingthe question-answer pair by one or more components of the target QAsystem.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one of the componentsis user selectable to perform domain-specific question-answer setanalysis and give recommendations customized for the user that is anexpert in the domain.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one ofthe shortcomings is selected from the group consisting of a misspelledword in the question, a misspelled word in the answer, the questionbeing an incomplete sentence, the question being poorly worded, thequestion includes at least one term that is unknown to the QA system,the answer includes at least one term that is unknown to the QA system,the question fails to suggest a lexical answer type (LAT), a first LATcorresponding to the question fails to match a second LAT correspondingto the answer, a regular expression corresponding to the answer includeserrors, the regular expression corresponding to the answer fails tomatch any text in a provided source document, the regular expressioncorresponding to the answer potentially matches one or more incorrectanswers, the regular expression corresponding to the answer fails toconsider alternative forms of one or more correct answers, the questionis unanswerable based on a functionality of the QA system.
 5. The methodof claim 1 wherein at least one of the possible actions included in thefeedback is selected from the group consisting of a spelling correction,a grammar correction, a rewrite of the question into a proper sentence,a replacement of one or more specialized terms with one or more commonterms, a rewording of the question to suggest a lexical answer type(LAT), a rewording of a first LAT corresponding to the question in orderto match a second LAT corresponding to the answer, a suggestion toreword the question to provide a more clear focus of the question, asuggestion to modify a syntax of the answer that is expressed as aregular expression, a suggestion to reword the answer that is expressedas the regular expression to match expanded forms of knownabbreviations, and a suggestion to modify a first type corresponding tothe answer to match a second type corresponding to the question.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: receiving, from a user interfacethat is utilized by the user, the question-answer pair; transmitting thehuman-readable feedback to the user interface; and receiving, from theuser interface, a modified question-answer pair input by the user,wherein the modified question-answer pair addresses at least one of theshortcoming by performing at least one of the possible actions includedin the human-readable feedback.
 7. The method of claim 6 furthercomprising: receiving, prior to the transmission of the human-readablefeedback, a regular expression provided by the user that matches one ormore other correct answers; and receiving, prior to the transmission ofthe human-readable feedback, a network address provided by the user,wherein the network address corresponds to a network location thatincludes the answer.
 8. An information handling system comprising: oneor more processors; a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;and a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at leastone of the processors to improve a quality of question-answer sets usedas inputs to a question-answering (QA) system, wherein the set ofinstructions perform actions of: analyzing a question-answer pair usingnatural language processing (NLP) components, wherein thequestion-answer pair includes a question and an answer to the question,and wherein at least one of the NLP components is a configurableanalyzer extension; identifying, based on the analysis, one or moreshortcomings of the question-answer pair, wherein the shortcomingsrelate to an ability of the target QA system to analyze the question;and providing a human-readable feedback to a user, wherein the feedbackrecommends one or more possible actions to address the identifiedshortcomings.
 9. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein theanalyzing further comprises: processing the question-answer pair by oneor more components of the target QA system.
 10. The information handlingsystem of claim 9 wherein at least one of the components is userselectable to perform domain-specific question-answer set analysis andgive recommendations customized for the user that is an expert in thedomain.
 11. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein at leastone of the shortcomings is selected from the group consisting of amisspelled word in the question, a misspelled word in the answer, thequestion being an incomplete sentence, the question being poorly worded,the question includes at least one term that is unknown to the QAsystem, the answer includes at least one term that is unknown to the QAsystem, the question fails to suggest a lexical answer type (LAT), afirst LAT corresponding to the question fails to match a second LATcorresponding to the answer, a regular expression corresponding to theanswer includes errors, the regular expression corresponding to theanswer fails to match any text in a provided source document, theregular expression corresponding to the answer potentially matches oneor more incorrect answers, the regular expression corresponding to theanswer fails to consider alternative forms of one or more correctanswers, the question is unanswerable based on a functionality of the QAsystem.
 12. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein at leastone of the possible actions included in the feedback is selected fromthe group consisting of a spelling correction, a grammar correction, arewrite of the question into a proper sentence, a replacement of one ormore specialized terms with one or more common terms, a rewording of thequestion to suggest a lexical answer type (LAT), a rewording of a firstLAT corresponding to the question in order to match a second LATcorresponding to the answer, a suggestion to reword the question toprovide a more clear focus of the question, a suggestion to modify asyntax of the answer that is expressed as a regular expression, asuggestion to reword the answer that is expressed as the regularexpression to match expanded forms of known abbreviations, and asuggestion to modify a first type corresponding to the answer to match asecond type corresponding to the question.
 13. The information handlingsystem of claim 8 wherein the actions further comprise: receiving, froma user interface that is utilized by the user, the question-answer pair;transmitting the human-readable feedback to the user interface; andreceiving, from the user interface, a modified question-answer pairinput by the user, wherein the modified question-answer pair addressesat least one of the shortcoming by performing at least one of thepossible actions included in the human-readable feedback.
 14. Theinformation handling system of claim 13 wherein the actions furthercomprise: receiving, prior to the transmission of the human-readablefeedback, a regular expression provided by the user that matches one ormore other correct answers; and receiving, prior to the transmission ofthe human-readable feedback, a network address provided by the user,wherein the network address corresponds to a network location thatincludes the answer.
 15. A computer program product stored in a computerreadable medium, comprising computer instructions that, when executed byan information handling system, causes the information handling systemto improve a quality of question-answer sets used as inputs to aquestion-answering (QA) system by performing actions comprising:analyzing a question-answer pair using natural language processing (NLP)components, wherein the question-answer pair includes a question and ananswer to the question, and wherein at least one of the NLP componentsis a configurable analyzer extension; identifying, based on theanalysis, one or more shortcomings of the question-answer pair, whereinthe shortcomings relate to an ability of the target QA system to analyzethe question; and providing a human-readable feedback to a user, whereinthe feedback recommends one or more possible actions to address theidentified shortcomings.
 16. The information handling system of claim 15wherein the analyzing further comprises: processing the question-answerpair by one or more components of the target QA system.
 17. Theinformation handling system of claim 16 wherein at least one of thecomponents is user selectable to perform domain-specific question-answerset analysis and give recommendations customized for the user that is anexpert in the domain.
 18. The information handling system of claim 15wherein at least one of the shortcomings is selected from the groupconsisting of a misspelled word in the question, a misspelled word inthe answer, the question being an incomplete sentence, the questionbeing poorly worded, the question includes at least one term that isunknown to the QA system, the answer includes at least one term that isunknown to the QA system, the question fails to suggest a lexical answertype (LAT), a first LAT corresponding to the question fails to match asecond LAT corresponding to the answer, a regular expressioncorresponding to the answer includes errors, the regular expressioncorresponding to the answer fails to match any text in a provided sourcedocument, the regular expression corresponding to the answer potentiallymatches one or more incorrect answers, the regular expressioncorresponding to the answer fails to consider alternative forms of oneor more correct answers, the question is unanswerable based on afunctionality of the QA system.
 19. The information handling system ofclaim 15 wherein at least one of the possible actions included in thefeedback is selected from the group consisting of a spelling correction,a grammar correction, a rewrite of the question into a proper sentence,a replacement of one or more specialized terms with one or more commonterms, a rewording of the question to suggest a lexical answer type(LAT), a rewording of a first LAT corresponding to the question in orderto match a second LAT corresponding to the answer, a suggestion toreword the question to provide a more clear focus of the question, asuggestion to modify a syntax of the answer that is expressed as aregular expression, a suggestion to reword the answer that is expressedas the regular expression to match expanded forms of knownabbreviations, and a suggestion to modify a first type corresponding tothe answer to match a second type corresponding to the question.
 20. Theinformation handling system of claim 15 wherein the actions furthercomprise: receiving, from a user interface that is utilized by the user,the question-answer pair; transmitting the human-readable feedback tothe user interface; and receiving, from the user interface, a modifiedquestion-answer pair input by the user, wherein the modifiedquestion-answer pair addresses at least one of the shortcoming byperforming at least one of the possible actions included in thehuman-readable feedback.